GREATER Manchester schools need a staggering HALF-BILLION pounds' worth of repairs, it was claimed today.

Leaking roofs, failing boilers, rotting window frames and ageing wiring are just some of the things that urgently need fixing - at an estimated cost of '500m.

Bills for maintenance and repairs needed within the next five years in the Manchester city council area alone add up to '87.2m, according to figures released by the Liberal Democrats.

According to the figures, the total maintenance and repair bill for the 10 Greater Manchester authorities can be broken down as follows: Bolton '44m; Bury '42m; Manchester '87.2m; Oldham '60.5m; Rochdale '43.8m; Salford '37m; Stockport '61.5; Tameside '34.3m; Trafford '17m; and Wigan '67.4m.

The figures, released by Lib Dem education spokesman Phil Willis, pointed to the "shocking" state of classrooms across the country - despite big increases in education spending.

"Every day pupils and teachers spend many hours in their school buildings, and it should be the government's priority to ensure these premises are modern, clean and fit for a 21st-century education," said Mr Willis.

Successful

"When Charles Clarke was Education Secretary, he promised every school would be rebuilt or refurbished by 2015 - these figures show how far the government is from this."

An Education and Skills Department spokesman said: "After decades of chronic under-funding, we have increased spending on school buildings from '683m in 1997 to '6.3bn for 2007-08 - a huge six-fold rise."

"Every secondary school nationwide will be refurbished or replaced under our Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

"Thirty-eight local authorities are already part of BSF and will get a share of over '6bn in capital funding between 2005 and 2008."

A Manchester city council spokesman said: "The department acknowledges the amount of maintenance backlog within our schools.

"But over the last few years it has been very successful in securing a large amount of capital funding from the Education Department to rebuild most city secondary schools and many primary schools, as well as carrying out adaptations and urgent repairs."

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